Content creation when you hate writing

I get this question (or rather, exasperated statement!) about content creation all the time.
“I can’t write!”
“How am I supposed to do all this content creation everyone expects when I HATE writing!?”
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I’m one of those people you probably love to hate, because I love writing. I always have. Ever since I could pick up a crayon I have loved writing.

My essays won me competitions in school. My unsolicited articles secured me paid travel-writing gigs. My copywriting skills got me promotion. And my succinct wit has won me a number of 25 words or less competitions (my husband is still waiting for me to win a car or something more useful than hairtongs though…)

Yessiree, I am madly in love with the written word. It’s my favorite way to create content for my business.

However, I know for a fact that my love is not shared by all. In fact, I know for sure that some entrepreneurs actually hate writing. They may not even be bad at it, regardless, they hate it. And that’s cool.

I’m going to bust a myth that plagues the marketing world … that:

great content creators = great writers.

*ba bow*

Not true. This may have held water a few years ago when copy was king and slogans were big, but now, in the changing landscape of the marketing world, it is no longer the truth.

The good news is now that if you hate writing you DON’T have to write much at all to be known as a prolific content creator!

Thanks to technology, we can create content in various ways – many of which involve little writing.

Here are seven super simple content creation ideas, for those of you who truly-ruly hate writing.

1. Video Tutorials

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn. (Benjamin Franklin). And how right ole Ben was, hey?

Tutorials work really well when you want to demonstrate a particular skill or method to your audience. You don’t need a fancy setup, just your phone and a small tripod.

If you want to show a certain sequence of events on screen, use a tool like screen flow (for mac users) or screencastomatic (for pc users) or even zoom which will let you share and record your screen to teach your audience.

You can embed the video on your blog, post it to social media or email it out in a newsletter. You can also use rev.com – or a real person – to transcribe your videos so they can be used as text on your blog.

2. Video interviews

People are inherently stickybeaks. We love knowing what other people are up to and how they do what they do, especially successful people. This is why interviews work so well.

Think old school – Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Dr Phil. And new school (online TV and podcasts) – Marie Forleo on Marie TV and Annemarie Cross on Ambitious Entrepreneur Show.

Whilst most of us can’t afford a glamorous setup like Marie’s, it doesn’t mean you can’t do an interview show. Just jump on Zoom or Skype and record a side-by-side interview with your guest. You can even do a Facebook live and invite your guest as a speaker to conduct the interview.

3. Round-ups

Curating content is one of the simplest and most effective ways to create content that gets seen and shared. Whether you are a product or service based entrepreneur you can curate ‘the best of’, ‘the easiest’ or ‘the must-have’ tools, tips, things etc. in your industry.

Not only is it easy to create but it’s very helpful for your audience to get a curated list without having to do any research.
Bonus: these types of posts work really well on Pinterest as an image.

4. Podcast

Podcast subscriptions are on a sharp increase in Australia and across the world. And the audience is a good one – aged 18-54, well educated and affluent. Podcasts are a great way to create and distribute more valuable content to your audience; consumers tend to listen to entire episodes, versus watching only snippets of videos. It also gives you an unparalleled reach because you are literally in people’s ears.

Having a podcast is also a great new form of networking. You can reach out to interesting and successful people without them feeling like you are trying to pick their brain.

It’s not very expensive to have a podcast either and anyone can do it with a little bit of tech help. Think about your niche and target them specifically with interesting content.

5. Video Q&A sessions

A great way to serve your people (before selling to them) is to answer their burning questions. And there are no doubt plenty of them!

Think about what you get asked ALL THE TIME and do a short video answering that question. You can also invite your audience to send in their questions and solve them on a video Q&A. You can then post these to your YouTube channel and Facebook page. If you are up to it, you can even start a monthly or weekly live AMA (ask me anything) where you can answer questions on a FB live.

6. Guest Writers

Guest posting is a great way to build your profile and backlinks as well as fill out your blog with words that you don’t have to write! You increase your network and your content consistency improves (as will your SEO).

Even if you had just one guest post per month, that’s one less piece of content you need to create while serving great value and access to a new expert to your audience.

7. Imagery

A picture says a thousand words….so why not use them if you’re stuck for words?

You can use as many or as few words as you want to accompany the images. Believe me, you can always find some way to visually represent what it is you want to say. Just look at Instagram for inspiration!

Finally, you can always outsource some of your writing to a copywriter, but ONLY once you are very clear on what your business voice, tone and language is…AND ONLY if you are able to clearly articulate it. You don’t want your readers getting confused or put off because the writing doesn’t sound like you.

I hope this list helps you realise that even if you hate writing there are plenty of other content creation techniques which you give you scope to offer loads of value to your audience.

Let me know which ones you plan to use (or are already using) in your content creation.